


Crimson Feathers

by unluckyrose



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angelstuck, M/M, demons and angels au, i developed a huge plot around it but it's still just kinda my interpretation of au so far i guess, i mean it is for it but i kinda took the little there was an ran really far with it, i'll probably add more character/shipping tags as i go, inspired by/based on/ written for? the-space-case's angelstuck au, rosemary is in the background so im not gonna tag it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-08-23 08:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8321845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unluckyrose/pseuds/unluckyrose
Summary: For some time now, the Angel Dave Strider has sat on the edges of the clouds and watched a certain demon with nubby horns from afar.For some time now, the Demon Karkat Vantas has noticed a weird angel watching him whenever he visits the surface.And neither of these things really mattered until both Heaven and Hell decided a couple humans needed watching and Dave and Karkat are both sent to talk these humans over to their side.





	1. Observing

**Author's Note:**

> Hey this is based on the-space-case's angelstuck au and you should really go check that out  
> Like I said in the tags I kinda took the idea and ran with it so this fanfic will probably not end up being very accurate to the au at all oops but it's based on the same idea  
> http://the-space-case.tumblr.com/tagged/angelstuck

Most angels tended to stay away from the edge of the clouds. There wasn’t any rule against it, most just didn’t like looking down. Humanity was perplexing and impure, always doing something disgustingly wrong whenever they peeked over the edge. Since angels never left Paradise, they never really had to concern themselves with the worst of humanity, or even the less-than-best of humanity, and they preferred it that way.

If there was one thing angels wanted to think about less than humanity, it was demons. Unlike angels, demons weren’t usually confined to their home. They usually preferred to stay underground or only come out at night, but it wasn’t impossible to catch one walking the Earth. At the sight or mere mention of them, any angel would frown in disgust and turn away.

Well, that’s what most angels were like. To tell the truth, Dave was a really shitty angel. He swung his legs over the edge of a cloud and stared downwards. Paradise didn’t exactly have one single layer of clouds and one edge above Earth, it was more like a huge multi-layered community with miles-long clouds that they generally flitted back and forth from, but there were so many it was hard to actually find a place to view the surface. Dave knew a perfect place though, far from where most angels went. It was on one of the lowest clouds and from here he could see straight down into a human town and the neighboring forests.

His hands gripped the edge of the cloud as he leaned forward, eyes scanning the ground. Tiny humans went about their daily lives, walking down streets with their phones out and running to their cars and rushing home. In all the hours he’s spend watching from up here, he’s concluded that humans really don’t like being out after dark. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe they were just scared of each other. He didn’t know or really care what humans did, but they were way more interesting to watch than angels.

He spread his wings for balance as he leaned farther. A weak breeze ruffled his pure white feathers just a bit, causing him to twitch them a little. The streetlights below were on, casting the roads in a yellow glow. He squinted at the very edge of the forest, just outside the glow of the streetlights. It was about that time, where was he?

A few minutes passed. Dave’s eyes wandered around the town, idly watching the humans make their ways back to their homes. He watched a woman with long hair walk her dog, actually skipping while she did so. Humans were a mystery. Some couldn’t wait to get home the second the sun sets, then there’s some weird ones like this girl walking her dog in the middle of the night. So unpredictable, the whole species.

Suddenly, a shifting of plant life near the edge of the forest drew his attention. A bush moved and someone stumbled out into the light. He was short, much shorter than Dave at least and shorter than the average demon. His skin was gray, brighter in the glow but still an unusual shade. He had short, bushy black hair that couldn’t hide the short, rounded scarlet horns on top of his head.

Dave smiled and sat back as he watched the demon get his bearings. The creature stood up straight, recovering from his less than graceful entry, and started walking along the street. The demon never did much; he would just wander around town, occasionally stopping at a few buildings to look inside. Sometimes a human would talk to him, but mostly they would ignore him. Of course they would, he just looked like a normal person to them.

However, tonight, the demon only wandered to the end of one street before he stopped. Dave frowned and looked up and down the road. He didn’t see anything that would have distracted the creature, why did he just stop dead? His eyes trailed back to the demon just in time to see him tilt his head up.

Dave was pinned  with the most intense gaze he’d ever been on the receiving end of.

The demon’s eyes were bright red. They were the same color as his horns, of course, but somehow it was even more striking of a color when it was behind a gaze focused directly on him. The demon was looking straight up, burning into the angel with a fierce stare that held a hint of curiosity. Dave’s heart was beating hard in his chest and he didn’t even try to mask his look of wonder. He couldn’t even tell how long this staredown lasted, since time seemed to have slowed down.

At thinking that phrase, Dave noticed something was glowing behind him. Whoops. He shook his wings a little and they lost their crimson glow, returning to white. Time returned to normal. Finally, the demon startled at something on the surface and turned his attention to another demon that had appeared. The moment broken, Dave stood and flew away from the edge blood still feeling cold from shock.

He was rarely so struck that he used his powers by _accident_. He had also been stared at by God himself and never had he felt so pinned by a gaze. He watched that demon, he didn’t even know his name, every single night and he had never known the demon could see him too. Had the demon known he was watching him this whole time? What was he thinking right now, about the angel that sat on the clouds and just watched him every night?

He landed on a cloud in the higher layers and rubbed his eyes. Ugh. He needed to stop thinking about that demon. It was only because he was so bored, that he kept going back every night. Watching a demon walk around was way more entertaining than flying from cloud to cloud and talking to a bunch of uptight angels. Yeah, he just watched him out of boredom.

He folded his wings behind him and began to walk, his feet sinking slightly into the soft cloud. He suddenly felt very tired. Where was his cloud? Everything kind of drifted around up here, it was hard to keep track of anything. He just needed to find his cloud and rest for a bit, try not to think about the demon or humans or anything.

“There are rumors flying, you know.”

Dave jumped, actually flapping his wings and getting some distance away from the sudden voice. He flipped around in the air and managed to land gracefully, facing another angel. She was female, shorter than him, with short hair that was the same pale white as his. She had large, white wings that had the smallest hints of lavender on the tips of the feathers. A golden halo floated above her head, ever fixed here like all halos were to all angels, though her head was slightly tilted with the amused smirk she was giving him. “Jumpy today, Dave?” she asked.

“Oh. Sup, Rose?” he asked, quickly forcing himself to look calm and casual.

She raised an eyebrow. “Besides the fact you jumped like a cat from my mere words? I heard some interesting news today.”

“Yeah?” Rose’s eyebrow rose even higher at the slight crack in his voice. Dave tried not to twitch nervously. He loved Rose, she was basically the closest thing to a sister angels could have, but being under her dissective gaze when he was this shaken up was not pleasant. There were a few moments of silence as she narrowed her eyes at him and he tried to smirk as if he was in control of the situation.

“Some humans have gotten His attention,” Rose explained, and Dave tried not to let out a sigh of relief that she let it go.

“Cool. Wait, why?” In Dave’s experience, God suddenly taking an interest in anything was never good. “Like, gotten His attention like, ‘Wow, they’re super good, let’s reward them with a good harvest’ or got His attention like, ‘oh no looks like it’s flood time again’?”

“He hasn’t said anything about that yet.” Rose frowned, like she had the same train of thought. “I don’t expect Him to. You know him, forever holding all pertinent information hostage like dragons in those human fairy tales that kidnap woman of royal blood.”

“Human fairy tales?” Dave turned to face her so she could see his raised eyebrow.

“Yes, stories humans tell each other. It’s not a crime to learn about human customs.” Rose glanced down at the cloud floor as if to indicate humanity. “Conveniently, that brings me to my point.”

“You had a point? I thought this was just a sweet gossip session.”

“This is a sweet gossip session, but one with a point.” She makes a big sweeping gesture with her arms as if making a dramatic reveal of said point. “The interesting part of the rumors that are flying is that He wants some angels to watch these humans,” Rose explained, “Whatever makes them important, the demons may want them too.”

Dave blinked. “Uh, since when does He want us to leave Paradise on our own? Where did you even hear this rumor?”

Rose smiled smugly. “Okay, I lied. It wasn’t a rumor.” To explained, she waved her wings gently and they glowed lavender.

Oh. Rose and her stupid powers. “So what you, Saw that He’s going to ask a bunch of mortal-hating angels to go play babysitter?”

“Which is exactly why I brought it to you,” Rose explained, “You don’t seem to mind humans, let’s not pretend you aren’t always looking at them through the clouds, and you’re always complaining about how nothing ever happens up here. Watching these humans could finally be the breath of fresh air from your boredom.” She paused, then added, “Roxy, Dirk, and I are going to be watching them as well.”

Dave hid a flinch at the mention of his human-watching hobby. Of course she knew, but just watching humans wasn’t against any rules. “Wait, we’re just going to… what, go watch over some humans? Leave Paradise? Are we allowed to do that?”

“Well, it would be under His orders.”

“Wow.” Dave blinked. He didn’t remember ever leaving Paradise. It had to have been thousands of years since the last angel walked the Earth. The only things that were ever on the surface anymore were mortals and the occasional demon. _Like that one scarlet demon._

“You should do it,” Rose said, giving him a sly smile that sent an irrational wave of panic through him as he thought, Does _she know?_ “It will be a great learning experience. And it will stop you from getting so bored you rip all your feathers from your wings. It never hurt to do something to get in His good graces, anyway.” Then, in a rush of white and lavender-tinted feathers, she was gone.

Go to the Earth? Play guardian for some random humans? Honestly, it was a dream come true. And, maybe if he had something to do, he could keep his mind off… things.

 

 

 

There were several reasons Karkat liked to wander around the surface world at night. One of them was that humanity was just something that had to be witnessed. In the same way one sits and watches a pileup on the highway kind of ‘needs to be witnessed’, obviously. It’s not like the underworld got television , if he really wanted to watch all the disasters they caused and shit they did to each other he had to hop up to the surface and watch in one of their alcohol houses or wherever else he could catch the news.

Every once in awhile he would sit in the corner of a ‘bar’ and watch, only to see some horrifying attack or some corrupt politician. Someone else watching would make some comment like “It’s straight from hell” or “They’re just the devil.” And Karkat would have to stop himself from laughing bitterly. No, not even she would do half the awful things humanity does to itself. Or at least she wouldn’t do it pointlessly.

Another one of the reasons was the pet stores. He had to admit it, as fucked up as it was that somewhere along the line humans decided to make a species-wide hobby of imprisoning small animals in their homes, some pets were just too cute. Not that he would ever admit it. Or ever, ever let anyone see him cooing over the kittens for sale.

One of the biggest reasons was simply to get out the underworld. To be incredibly obvious, it was, well, Hell. But it was especially awful for him. Demons weren’t the kindest bunch and he really wasn’t the most intimidating.

The fresh air and free room to wander was nice. Earth sure was prettier than the cave system that made up most of the underground. Demons could choose to come up practically anywhere on the surface, but he always chose this one town. It was close to a mostly untouched forest, and despite all the stores and roads and houses built, humanity hadn’t done much to kill this particular area. A lot of wildlife managed to roam free without being hit by a car or shot for fun, so that was good at least. There wasn’t wildlife of any sort in the underworld, unless you counted the demons prowling everywhere, trying their hardest to make life inconvenient for whoever can’t defend themselves.

Another reason was that Terezi dragged him up here whenever she could. She had some obsession with the surface; probably the amount of gullible humans to fuck with. She was the one who showed him how to use what little power he had to hide his true appearance from humans so he could wander about without getting splashed with holy water and being shouted at in latin. She also showed him the best places to sneak in and have fun among the humans, like parties of drunk college students. Obviously this wasn’t his favorite passtime and he adamantly refused to ever do it again after a human vomited on his shoes. Besides sneaking into stupid human parties, Terezi mostly did things designed to make humans freak out, like hang creepy porcelain dolls from nooses in all the trees in the park.

But out of all the reasons to come to the surface, probably the most confusing one was the one that didn’t have to do with humanity or the surface at all. It wasn’t like he hadn’t noticed him before; how could he not? If angels do feel the need to radiate more power than he could ever dream of then they can’t expect to stalk someone subtly. He had noticed him a long time ago.

The angel was always there, far, far above on the lowest cloud layer. Karkat had never actually seen an angel before, and wow, they looked nothing like demons. Of course, they still had the same basic body form as humans and demons, but their skin was so much brighter and their hair was pale white than a demon’s. At least this one was. It wasn’t even like he was a caucasian human, it was more like his entire body simply lacked any pigment. The only color about him at first was the stunning golden glow of the halo above his head.

But this angel, he was even more than weirdly colored. He was tall, or at least he looked tall from where Karkat was standing. True, Karkat himself was rather on the short side, but the angel was definitely taller than the average human. If he was standing on the ground, he would probably tower over most people.

The wings themselves were something else. Huge, at least as long as the angel was tall when they were spread out. They had looked pure white at first, but they seemed to glow almost crimson during the latest angel-sighting.

Oh yes, the latest angel-sighting. Karkat had known the angel was watching him for a long time, but had mostly observed him through the corners of his eyes or from under awnings. He found excuses to come to the surface more often for a chance to see the angel again. Why did the angel watch him? Didn’t those things have anything better to do? Don’t they have harps to play and everyone else to look down on?

Eventually, subtly sneaking glances of the angel just wasn’t enough. What the hell was the harm of letting the angel know he knew it existed too? It was like any of those winged assholes ever came off their fluffy clouds to see what the rest of the world was like. So he just stopped, and for the first time, looked directly at the angel.

His breath caught in his throat. Oh, wow. He thought the glances from the corners of his eye made the angel look impressive, he wasn’t prepared to see him straight on. The golden shine from his halo seemed to surround his whole being, making his whole white form glow. His wings were spread on either side of him, equally as white with each feather waving in a nonexistent breeze. Colorless eyes widened in shock and stared back into his own red ones. Then the angel’s wings began to glow a brilliant crimson.

Karkat had heard something about that before, word of mouth passed from the demons who had actually seen an angel. When angels use their powers their wings glow, something that demons had criticized as foolish and that it gave away what they were doing to their enemies. That’s all demons ever said about angels really; they’re show-off-ish, they’re full of themselves, they’re pansies, blah blah blah.

But none of them had mentioned that they were so fucking attractive.

“Hey, Karkat!” a high pitched voice made him startle and look around. A familiar female demon with teal pointed horns was waving at him from across the street. Karkat glared at her, though he knew she couldn’t see, and glanced back up. The angel was gone.

“Dammit, Terezi.”

“Wow, here I am with amazing news, to be delivered right to your ungrateful ears, and you hurt me with human swears,” Terezi put a hand to her chest, feigning offense. Karkat sighed and crossed the road to talk to with her.

“What’s your news, Terezi?” He sighed, crossing his arms.

“Karkat,” She slung one arm around his shoulders and slipped into the tone of voice a sleazy car salesman might use. “how would you like corrupt humans with me?”

“Is this going to be the dolls thing all over again? Because I swear-“

“No, no, this is much more fun,” she paused, “Well, okay, it’ll take longer and be harder work, but that’s where you come in.”

“I don’t follow.”

Terezi sighed. “Okay, so here’s what’s up; The boss has her sights fixed on these couple of humans.”

Karkat frowned. That didn’t sound good. “Why?”

“Hahahaha, why would she tell us?” Terezi patted him as if to say ‘you sweet, innocent soul’. “Anyway, She thinks it’d be a good idea if, since we’re always on the surface anyway, we try and make sure these humans are on our side.”

“That doesn’t sound horrifyingly sinister at all.”

“Exactly. Come on, it’s an excuse to play mind games with a couple of dumb humans for the boss’s respect!”

“You’re the one who likes mind games,” Karkat pointed out, but still put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. Earning respect… being as nonthreatening a demon as he was wasn’t the safest lifestyle choice. If he could get some respect, the underworld might just become marginally safer for him. It’s not like corrupting a few humans would be that hard, and it probably wouldn’t much of all that power he lacks.

“Alright, fine, I’ll help you fuck with the humans,” Karkat sighed. Terezi loud out a high-pitched cackle like a victory screech.

As Terezi started dragging him down the street, Karkat glanced back up at the clouds. The angel was still gone.


	2. Human College Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave and Karkat both start to blend in a humans and neither have any idea what they're doing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hah ive fooled you all it's actually a college au

It’s about a week later that Dave finds himself on the surface, hiding behind a bookshelf in a human library. After getting the okay from the big man himself, who didn’t seem surprised at all that Rose knew about his plan (but of course why would He be), Rose had done as much research and observation of the humans they were supposed to watch as she could. Dave had helped a little, but mostly she was looking for boring things like how to invent four new people so they could masquerade as normal humans and such.

It turned out that there were four humans that needed to be watched; twin siblings John and Jade and their cousins Jane and Jake. It worked out perfectly, as there were only four angels even willing to leave Paradise for this. After much research and debate that Dave was barely a part of, they had each been assigned to a human. Roxy was paired with Jane, Dirk paired with Jake, Rose paired with Jade, and Dave ended up paired with this John human.

Rose had sent him off to this college this morning after briefing him on basically what college was and what one did there. Humans paid a lot of money to learn a lot of mostly useless knowledge and get a degree that barely helped them. Or at least that’s what Rose had gathered from the internet. Dave had already concluded he didn’t care for the idea, and Rose had responded by telling him she’d already enrolled him. He didn’t bother questioning how and had just decided to skip basically all of his classes.

The whole effort was mostly just to blend in as a normal human and quietly keep an eye on the humans.

And keep an eye on the human he did. John Egbert was reading at a table in his college library, not noticing the angel staring at him from behind a his bookshelf cover. He was probably studying or something. Dave wasn’t even sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing here. Just hiding among humans and keeping an eye on this one? He suddenly forgets why this was supposed to be an interesting change of pace.

He pulls out his phone. Dirk had actually been the one to get the four of them caught up on how human technology works. Dave had never seen him so excited as when he tried explaining how cellphones worked. Dave had never really seen him excited. He had also rarely seen Rose excited before she had thrown herself into human research. Roxy had also been practically jumping up and down over this adventure. He was happy that the others were enjoying this so much, anyway.

He sent off a text to Rose.

'what exactly am i doing here again'

His phone dinged to tell him he had a reply within seconds.

'Watching humans. I thought you knew that, considering we have been preparing for this for a week.'

'yeah but like are we just. watching them?'

'Well, that is basically it. Make sure no harm comes to them and that they stay on our side.'

'kinda boring tbh'

'At least there is no way for you to mess it up.'

Dave heard a thump and looked up from his phone before he could come up with a smart response. Someone new was standing next to John’s table and had just dropped a whole stack of books there. He couldn’t see who it was from his hiding place, but he could hear the conversation.

“Hello John,” the stranger greeted gruffly.

“Oh, hey. You’re Karkat, right?” John asked cheerfully, dropping his textbook gratefully to look at the stranger.

“Yes.” The stranger dropped into the chair so hard it made an audible skidding noise.

“From my sociology class?”

“You have to remember, asshole, I just got back from changing out my sweater for one _not_ covered in chalk,” the stranger grumbled. “Why such a mind-rottingly cliché prank anyway?”

John laughed loud enough to make a few other studying students at other tables glare. “It’s not cliché, it’s a classic!” John said.

“There wasn’t even a chalkboard in the room. You had to have brought a fucking a chalkboard eraser in to set that up.”

“Yep. Genius takes hard work.”

“Genius? What part of-” The stranger started to raise his voice, but the other library-goers glared again and he quickly quieted. “If you’re going to prank someone why not do something that takes the slightest bit of thought, or have all your brain cells died from fucking erasers and buckets of water, and other various objects falling on your head?”

“Like what?”

There was a silence. “Uh.”

“See? Nothing better than the classics.” John turned to face his book again, but stopped. “Oh, but I’m sorry if I actually like, ruined that sweater or anything.”

The stranger grumbled something inaudible then said, “No, it’ll wash out.”

“Dude, are you just going to stand around like a creep or are you going to get something?” Dave jumped and flipped around to find a student raising an eyebrow at him.

He didn’t answer, instead ducking his face and grabbing a random book before stepping out from behind the shelf and heading for a random table. He risked a quick glance up at the table John and the stranger were at, not wanting to seem conspicuous, and nearly stopped dead.

The stranger was his demon. The same gray skin, same bushy black hair, same tiny scarlet horns. Same intense, red-eyed glare, only now focused on John rather than him. Of course he had some sort of glamour on so the humans would see him as human, Dave did too, but he could see his true form. It took all he had not to let his jaw drop and to continue his walk to the table. When he reached it, he sharply pulled out the uncomfortable wooden chair and threw himself down into it.

No one was looking at him. Neither the demon or John noticed him at all. Good. But now Dave was much more visible if they did decide to look around and spotted him. They continued to talk and Dave ignored the actual words, mostly watching. The demon was wearing some fluffy black turtleneck sweater that almost swallowed him up, and he somehow looked even shorter up close. And even more expressive; he could see how tensely the demon moved and how he actually seemed to strain under the effort of not shouting in the library.

Why this demon? Of all the demons to target his charge, it had to be this one. Dave glanced down at his phone again.

'so its like my job to watch the human and make sure no demons corrupt him?'

'Yes, that is basically what I’ve been telling you.'

'then i already fucked up'

'Oh no. Has something happened?'

'demon talking to him'

'Well then your job would be to overtly stop the demon from corrupting him.'

'by doing what, trying to fucking fight the demon?' He really hoped that wasn’t the only option. He really didn’t want to have to hurt this demon.

'Overtly.'

'so what, i just go up to the human and try to push him the other way? there’s literally no way to approach him that wont be suspicious no one just goes up to strangers and starts influencing their lives no matter their species'

Rather than a near instant reply like the last few he’d been getting, the next one took a few minutes. He spent that time trying to look busy by hiding his face in the book he’d grabbed-which he just realized he was holding upside down holy shit- and pretending he wasn’t staring at the demon.

His phone pinged. 'Well, it’s up to you to figure it out. It’s your job. Meanwhile, I have a similar issue to deal with. Talk soon.'

Well, that didn’t sound good.

He glanced back up at the demon and John. He couldn’t really tell, but all the demon seemed to be doing was talking to him like a normal human. No attempted kidnapping or harm seemed to be happening. Did the demons have a similar plan? Blend in, befriend the human, and quietly influence them without drawing attention?

In that case, it seemed like the only option was to play the demon’s game. Dave would actually have to go to class tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Karkat ran his hands over his face and sighed. This was turning out to be more difficult than he had expected. After discovering there were actually four humans to corrupt and that she couldn’t stand this one in particular, Terezi had left him to deal with John Egbert on his own. This had involved mostly stalking the guy and trying to find any excuse to approach him, which hadn’t proved very effective.

So, he had decided to enroll in his college and befriend him. Which had backfired spectacularly when he ended up on the receiving end of the old eraser-above-the-door trick yesterday. It was also backfiring now that he had actual homework.

Well, realistically he really shouldn’t have to do any homework. He could just ignore his classes completely other than as an excuse to get closer to John. But it had taken a lot of work to enroll in college when he didn’t technically exist according to the humans’ legal ways of keeping track of people, and he if this was going to take awhile he should probably try not to get kicked out.

He glanced up from his laptop (which he had had to borrow from Vriska, who was a demon who enjoyed ‘borrowing’ things from humans.) He was sitting in a Denny’s, and the bottom corner of his laptop screen told him it was 5am. Usually a demon wouldn’t need to sleep, but that was for demons with way more power than him. Not that he slept as much he needed to anyway. It would be better if he at least had a place to stay on the surface, rather than hanging around in 24 hours restaurants until they kicked him out. He didn’t really want to return to the Underworld right now.

He had a class in a few hours. He would sit next to John and probably encourage him to cheat on homework or something. Would that could as corrupting? Seriously, how does one turn a human to align with demons? He wasn’t used to actually talking to any humans; manipulation and mind games were more for Terezi and Vriska. He really hadn’t thought this stupid fucking mission through before accepting it, had he?

He sighed internally and turned back to his laptop, wondering why humans purposefully subjected themselves to college.

\----

Okay, he had not expected this. He had not fucking expected this. Karkat nearly dropped his notebook when he stepped into the lecture hall for his class that morning. His eyes had instantly found John, sitting in the back of the class, but had stuck on someone else.

The fucking angel.

The angel was right there, sitting on the desk next to John’s and casually chatting with him. What the fuck?

It was him. He was wearing typical human clothes now, but it was still the same white-haired pale-skinned angel that had been watching him from the cloud. Karkat couldn’t help but stare. He just looked so out of place in the classroom, all holy glow and perfect smile and giant wings. It was like seeing a perfect red rose in a field of grass. Karkat wondered how all the humans weren’t staring. Obviously he was using some kind of glamour to look human, but surely he couldn’t hide that aura of power from even the most blind of creatures?

After he got done being dazzled by the angel’s unexpected appearance, Karkat got angry. No matter what specific angel it was, some angel had shown up to screw up his fucking job! Things were hard enough without someone actively working against him, now his mission was endangered by a feathery asshole showing up out of nowhere.

He stormed up and dropped his things on the desk on the other side of John’s. The angel stopped talking suddenly, noticing him as he dropped into the chair. John turned around to see what the angel was looking at and spotted him, face somehow lighting up even more. “Oh, hey Karkat!” Then his face fell. “Wow, you don’t look so good, you okay?”

 _I haven’t slept in a week and there’s an angel sitting right there._ “I’m fucking fantastic.”

The angel leaned over so he was facing Karkat around John, now with a calm smirk on his face. “Karkat? Interesting name there.”

What, was the angel trying to get him to admit he was a demon or something? Obviously they already knew what the other was. “It’s a perfectly fine name, asshole. I’m sure yours isn’t any better.”

“It’s Dave.”

Wow, did all angels have such completely human names? “Whatever.” At least he had a name for his weird angel stalker.

John turned to face Dave again. “Anyway, I can’t believe you’ve never seen a Nicholas Cage movie. What rock have you been living under?”

“Who the hell is Nicholas Cage?” Karkat asked. Like hell he was going to let this conversation keep happening without him involved. He didn’t spend all this time trying to get closer to John just to let an angel step in.

“Oh, come on!”

\-----

An hour later, class had let out and Karkat slumped facedown onto his desk as everyone else filed out. Why did this human have to be in college? Couldn’t he have thought of any better way to get close to John?

His desk shifted as someone sat on the edge, and he felt his notebook slide out from under his arm. “Have you seriously been going to all these classes?” Dave asked.

“Yes. What’s the point of enrolling if I don’t show up?” Karkat answered, not looking up. Or admitting to himself that the deep voice was oddly intoxicating and like nothing he’d ever heard.

“But dude, you’ve been taking actual notes and shit. I just enrolled so I had a not-suspicious excuse to talk to John.”

Karkat looked up. Mostly everyone was gone from the room, John included. Dave was flipping through his notebook, colorless eyes scanning each page but not actually reading anything. “I went through all the trouble of enrolling, I might as well try.” Karkat snatched the notebook back. The sudden movement nearly caused the angel to unbalance and he fluttered his wings so he didn’t fall. Karkat couldn’t help but silently admire the way the feathers flowed with the movement. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

“Sent from higher up to keep an eye on the humans.” Dave leaned back on his arms. “Ya know, keeping nasty demons away from them.”

“You haven’t been doing a very good fucking job, I’ve been talking to him for days.”

“Well, now I sit right next to him in class, so I’m going to be doing a better job.”

“Yeah, I’d like to see you stay close to him when you flunk out because you didn’t even try to keep your cover as a college student, you cliché guardian angel.”

“Challenge accepted.” Dave hopped off the desk. “Let’s be John Egbert’s shoulder angel and devil. A battle of wills that’ll go down in history. The famed war between good and evil, coming to a head with the squabble of the world’s coolest angel and the demon with the nubbiest horns over a dork who watches movies twenty-four seven.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Great come back. I think that’s a point for heaven today.” Dave’s wings started to glow crimson again. He smirked again. “See ya tomorrow, Karkat.” And then he was gone, just flashed right out of the room.

Karkat hated this stupid angel already.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry to take forever then give yall a kinda short chapter, but im hoping with some breaks coming up for me ill have more free time so i can write more chapters with less wait time between them.  
> oh, if anyone's curious i have a tumblr too: http://unluckyrose.tumblr.com/


	3. Human Technology is Confusing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am, soooooooo sorry I went so long without updating. gah i'm a mess. have a decent length chapter as an apology

“This demon is just so frustrating,” Rose sighed. Dave readjusted the laptop on his lap and clicked to another random video.

 

“Uh huh?” He said.

 

“She's very smart, and good at getting in the way. She used almost exactly the same idea I had to gain my charge's trust.”

 

Dave glanced at the Skype window, which displayed a picture of Rose's human disguise. She had really gone all out in adapting to humanity, even familiarizing herself with their technology. Not to level of Dirk, who seemed to be spending more time geeking out over human technology than actually watching his charge. It made communication at lot easier at least, even if Dave felt like kind of an idiot as both of them had to talk him through using a laptop and setting up social media accounts. “What was your idea?”

 

“You see, since my charge lives on an island, I decided to play off of humanity's tendency to take pity on the helpless and pretend to shipwreck. Faking amnesia and with no way home, I got her to take me in and now I've gained her trust.”

 

“Pretty devious. You sure you're the good guy here?”

 

He could hear Rose's smirk through the Skype call. “Good is subjective. Besides, I've made way more progress than you.”

 

“Yeah let's all worship the mastermind manipulator Rose the angel, you don't have to take fuckin human college or pay for shit.”

 

“You say that as if you're actually taking your college classes,” Rose said, “but I have the greatest suspicion that you're browsing YouTube rather than doing homework.”

 

Dave quickly clicked away from his video of “Top Ten Grossest Things Found in Fast Food”, as if Rose could see him. Could she? Fuck, he wasn't an expert in human technology. “It's not like I'm actually here to get an education, Rose.”

 

“Yes, but you have to at least do well enough to stay in school. Where will you be if you fail and that demon of yours stays glued to your charge's side?” Rose paused. “What's the deal with your demon anyway?”

 

“What's the deal?” Dave repeated.

 

“You just seem oddly unconcerned with his presence. You haven't brought him up since you told me about him. I thought you'd complain about a demon in your way almost as much as you've complained about technology.”

 

“Dude, if they have touchscreens why do they still have these stupid built-in... screen-clicker things in laptops?”

 

“It's called a trackpad, Dave.”

 

“Also, what the hell's with the battery life on these things? It's like I can't use it for ten minutes without it dying on me.”

 

“I'm sure you'll love technology when you get used to it. It seems as though you've already made your home on YouTube.” There's suddenly a crash from somewhere on Rose's end of the call and Dave stares at the Skype window, startled.

 

“Rose?” he called, raising his voice unnecessarily.

 

There's a completely silent pause that takes far too long. Dave was already wondering if he could remember where the island was and if he could fly all the way there by the time her voice comes back. “Sorry, I'm fine.”

 

“What the hell happened?” Dave asked, his feathers smoothing down from where they'd ruffled in worry.

 

“Miss Harley just dropped something in the other room,” Rose explained. He could hear footsteps on the other end of the call and jostling of clothes. “I'm going to move to a different place in the house so she doesn't catch me talking to you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I'm supposed to be a shipwrecked human with amnesia, it'd be quite hard to explain who I'm talking to if I claim to have no one else to stay with.” The footsteps stopped. “She certainly does have a lot of odd treasures around the place.”

 

“Treasures? What, like gold and shit?”

 

“No, it's more.. hold on a moment, let me turn on the webcam.” The Skype window suddenly changed, instead of a picture of Rose's human disguise it now showed a video of some incredibly cluttered room.

 

“A webcam? What is this?” Dave leaned closer to the screen, trying to make out the different items in the video. It shifted and suddenly Rose was in view. He could only see her human disguise, her wings invisible. She was wearing a shirt he'd never seen before with a purple squid creature on it and in her disguise her usually colorless eyes looked a very human-natural brown color. It was so weird to her like this, so very close to the Rose he knew but just slightly different.

 

“It's a webcam. It shows you what's going on on my end of the call. You should have one built in to your laptop,” she explained.

 

Dave didn't bother asking how to turn his on. He didn't think it was all that necessary for Rose to see him just sitting on top of a building in the middle of the night, wings wrapped around him for warmth. He hadn't bothered to find a house or anything; not like he needed sleep. “Humans have this shit but they still disconnect from the internet when they walk two feet away?” Dave shook his head. He was stealing the internet from the apartment below him. “Why can I only see your human disguise anyway? What's with the shirt?”

 

“You can?” Rose frowned slightly in the picture on-screen. “I'd guess it's the human technology. The camera can't see through our glamors. Also the shirt is Miss Harley's, she gave to me when I washed up.”

 

“Why did she just have a shirt with a squid laying around? In your exact shade of purple? Does she just keep oddly fitting clothes around for random immortal beings washing up on her island? You showed up and she was like 'oh yes, the purple angel, I have the perfect shirt.'”

 

She smirked, amused. “She actually gave me several shirts with these squids on them in different colors, they're from a tv show she liked as a child I believe.” She pointed the screen back at the clutter before he could respond. “Look at this,” she said.

 

Dave took in the room. There were piles and piles of random items; lamps, weapons of some sort, machinery he didn't recognize, and for some reason a ridiculous amount of paintings of women that were all tinted blue. “What the fuck?” he asked.

 

“This is really the most random collection of items I can imagine. Anything could be in there, honestly. I wouldn't be surprised if I found a holy weapon wedged between an ancient artifact and a lamp shaped like a blue woman. Humans really are the oddest of creatures, I can see why you like them so much,” Rose's tone was fond as she turned the camera back to herself. “Anyway, Dave, how are you holding up over there exactly? Have you made any more progress?”

 

“I annoyed the fuck out of the demon and argued with John about movies I haven't seen,” Dave shrugged.

 

Rose sighed. “I suppose you have all the time the world, really, as long as he doesn't seem ready to join the forces of evil at any moment. Trust is a lot harder to gain than it first appeared.”

 

“Really? I thought your human already trusted you. Cause of, like, the helpless thing.”

 

Rose's frown was much more pronounced now. “Do you remember what I said about the demon using the same idea as me?”

 

“How?”

 

“She also faked a shipwreck. Miss Harley was kind and accommodating for the first stranger to wash up on her doorstep, but she's not stupid. Two amnesiac strangers show up in the same week? She must be suspicious.” She put her face in a hand. “I'm a servant of God sharing a room with an underworld creature, Dave.”

 

“Woah, wait, hold up, why are you sharing a room with her?” Dave raised an eyebrow, then remembered Rose couldn't see him.

 

“Miss Harley only had one guest room. That's why she was dropping things, she's trying to clear out an extra one.”

 

Dave tapped his fingers on the laptop and ruffled his wings worriedly again. “...Are you safe there, dude? Like, my demon is really weak looking and not near me that often but if you have to stay in the same building with yours all the time-”

 

“I am fine, Dave,” Rose assured him, looking up. “Your concern is very appreciated, but I doubt the demon will kill me with Miss Harley in the same building. Besides, she can't kill me in my sleep if neither of us sleep.”

 

Dave laughed quietly, not upsetting the quiet night around him. “What, do you just sit and stare at each other all night?”

 

Rose opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a voice in the background. It sounded very stoic and calm, and made Dave's wings ruffle again. “For someone with no friends to turn to you sure have been talking to your computing device for a very long time.”

 

“...I have to go, Dave,” Rose said, hand moving to close the laptop. The image on screen disappeared and Dave was left staring at the 'call ended' screen. The silence of night filled his ears, deafening after the sudden cut off.

 

“Shit!” Dave was on his feet, laptop dropping to the roof below him as he pulled out his phone. Rose could be in danger! Did he need to fly over there? Fuck, he didn't even remember where the island was. Was it in the Atlantic or the Pacific? She must have told him at some point.

 

He spread his wings and kicked off the top of the building, wind immediately catching him. He didn't even look where he was going as he took off in a random direction, staring at his phone screen and scrolling through his texts with Rose to see if she had mentioned where she was.

 

Had the demon gotten her? Was she going to be exposed? Could this be the end of her mission? Would He punish her if she was given away as an angel or something?

 

His phone chimed in his hand and he started. Scrolling down to the latest text, he saw a new one.

 

'I am fine. I will talk with you in the morning'

 

He stopped moving his wings for a second, overcome with relief. When he realized he really needed to move his wings to not crash into things, he swerved sharply out of the way of a building and landed on the sidewalk with a skid of his shoes.

 

Of course Rose was fine, she could handle herself. She had just told him. He needed to stop being so stupid about this, it wasn't like she was in any more danger of the human world than he was. Sure, he had been watching them longer, but she had studied and prepared for this mission and she would be fine.

He should just, worry about himself for now. His own safety and his mission.

 

“Wow, what a fucking beautifully graceful fall,” a voice said behind him, “did they teach you how to fly like a chicken with all its feathers ripped out in Paradise? Or was flying around like a fucking lunatic then crashing headfirst into a wall just part of your foolproof plan to blend in with humanity?”

 

Dave turned around to see Karkat standing on the sidewalk behind him. He was rather hard to see in the night, his black hair blending in with the sky and making his scarlet horns almost look like they were floating. He was carrying a backpack for some reason, slung over his right shoulder. What was the demon doing here? That was an odd coincidence. He was so surprised he couldn't even think of a reply.

 

The demon raised an eyebrow. “Silence? Did you actually hit something while you were up there? Wow, didn't angels could get brain damage.”

 

“Tone down your wing-envy man, I fly fine. I'm very fly. Like the Blue Angels, swooping over the Super Bowl. I think that's a thing? Except, I'm actually an angel and not some military plane thing. And I'm more of a red guy,” Dave replied, recovering.

 

Karkat frowned. Well, he frowned more. He had been frowning almost every time Dave saw him. “Why would I be jealous of those pathetic feather dusters? Of course, my life dream is to be able to crash into the concrete and become a pretentious angel pancake.”

 

“Nah, they do more than fly.” Dave pocketed his phone and, with a small glow of red from his wings, felt time slow around him. He calmly strode a few steps closer until he was standing just in front of Karkat, then the glow of his wings died down and time returned to normal.

 

Karkat jumped back and threw up his hands in front of him, startled. The demon stifled a “What the fuck?!” and quickly schooled his expression back into an unimpressed one. This was probably one of those things he shouldn't reveal to his enemy, but Dave couldn't resist showing off. It was the only real use for his powers. Luckily though, Karkat just glared at him silently, probably knowing the angel had only done it to show off and was not questioning further out of spite.

 

When the demon continued his silence, Dave decided to change the subject before the stare-off could get awkward. “So, what are you doing out here? Being a cliché creature of the night, prowling the dark streets, hoping some poor human will get a spooky picture of you and post it on the creepypasta sites?” Well, he had literally just learned that cameras couldn't see through glamours, but whatever.

 

“I was just minding my own business when a feathered moron came barreling out of the sky in front of me.” Karkat paused, then raised an eyebrow again. “Wait, you've seen those sites too?”

 

He had. It didn't take him long to stumble across them when he didn't have anything else to do but look up what humans knew about mythical creatures on the internet. Some were surprisingly accurate. Most were the worst bullshit he'd ever heard. Almost all of them had terrible grammar. “I did. What the fuck, humans have a hell of an imagination. Even He couldn't dream up half that stuff, which is a good thing because if He could it would probably exist. I wouldn't be down here if there really were legless monsters climbing up staircases and haunted video games, fuck. That shit's enough to make you want to hide out in the world's most boring cloud for the rest of eternity.”

 

“Believe me, there isn't even anything that fucked up down below. I don't know how humans manage to pull the most demented shit out of their mass of mostly useless pink mush they call brains.” Karkat paused. “Except some of them are sort of half-real. I think my friend is responsible for at least three I've seen.”

 

“Well obviously, what's the point of being a demon if you don't use your powers to scare the crap out of humans? Gotta do something interesting with that immortality.”

 

Karkat made a movement like an aborted flinch, so quick Dave almost didn't catch it. The demon quickly covered it by saying, “It's a bit fucking pointless, isn't it? Humans scare themselves enough on a daily basis. Just sit the fuck back and watch them ruin themselves.”

 

Dave shrugged. “Less fun that way.”

 

“Terezi would like you. Which isn't the best thing. Relating to someone so needlessly cruel and insane that you'd think some medieval human rulers too gruesome for history books had taken inspiration from her doesn't paint you as the holiest of angels.” Karkat crossed his arms like a judgmental middle-aged mom.

 

“Good is subjective,” Dave quoted, though Karkat wouldn't know he was quoting.

 

“Not something you really want to hear from the one that's supposed to be keeping John on the light side or whatever it is you're doing. You'll probably make my job easier.”

 

Oh, so this odd conversation had finally circled back to their jobs. Maybe Dave could use this opportunity to get some idea of what Karkat was planning? “Really? How is that job going, by the way? Are you planning on making him walk around with a pentagram on his shirt and committing petty crimes? Here we have John Egbert, guilty of shoplifting from a gas station. Why do you think he did it? Why, he was corrupted by the devil's most threatening minion!”Or he could just be insulting.

 

“Fuck off,” Karkat spat, and he turned around, backpack swinging. He started to stalk away, clearly done with Dave for the night. Dave considered chasing after him to bother him some more, but he decided against it. He was still shook by the conversation with Rose. And he better head back to his roof before some curious person comes across his laptop and steals it.

 

“See ya, creepypasta!” the angel called, then spread his wings and took off back towards his building. Either Karkat ignored him or he had flown off too fast to hear his reply.

 

Now that he was paying attention and not distracted by possible crisis, he was sure to slow time while he flew so he wasn't caught. Even though he was wearing his glamour, a 'normal human' soaring through the sky would be a freaky fucking sight. Though maybe he shouldn't bother, since if some human did see him and snap a picture they wouldn't be able to tell him apart from all the hoaxes on the internet.

 

While he flew, he thought about the demon. That was an unusual encounter. It certainly wasn't friendly, but he had been caught unawares by his enemy and his enemy hadn't done anything. Really, if Karkat had been as ruthless and determined to win as you would expect a demon to be, he would have killed him as soon as he had landed rather than mock his flying skills.

 

He remembered the question Rose had asked him earlier. What _was_ the deal with his demon? He guessed he just wasn't that concerned with Karkat's presence because he wasn't all that threatening. In all the time Dave had watched him, he'd never seen him try to actually hurt anyone. Of course, Dave didn't actually know anything about demons. So either Karkat was unusual for a demon, or Dave was just hoping he was cause he _wanted_ there to be something about this particular demon.

 

Either way, he wanted to learn more about him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i got kinda stressed and like, lost all ability to write for awhile haaaah. i'll update more frequently now  
> if you want to talk with me about this au or hear about me complaining about writing in between reblogs, my tumblr is http://unluckyrose.tumblr.com/ . I'll also try to actually start replying to comments now too, I really appreciate comments I just never know what to say in response


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